Winners and losers in Europeanisation: Reforming the national regulation of telecommunications

Article is part of a special issue on Policy Change and Discourse in Europe.

Article abstract:

This article examines how, when and why European economic integration affects the domestic politics of institutional reform through an examination of the reform of the telecommunications regulatory regime in Britain, France, Germany and Italy from the 1970s until 2001. European integration can be used domestically to justify and legitimise reforms that had earlier been strongly resisted and to persuade policy-makers and public opinion to accept changes that were driven by other international and national forces for change. 'Discourse' arising from European integration is a key element in institutional change. Thus in France, Germany and Italy liberalisation was presented as 'inevitable' given European integration; EC-'imposed' liberalisation was used to justify privatisation, which policy-makers claimed was necessary for national champions to survive and prosper in the new liberalised European and world market. However, European integration was one of several common international forces for change. The conclusions show the ways in which European regulation redistributes power, aids certain interests, but disadvantages others, and legitimates reforms.

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